Computed Radiography

The Southern Animal Referral Centre houses the first computed radiography (CR) system in a companion animal veterinary centre in Victoria, Australia. For the first time, Melbourne’s and greater Victoria’s cats and dogs can have an x-ray taken without the need for x-ray film.

Computed radiography, or CR for short, uses a special type of x-ray plate along with a plate scanner. Traditionally x-ray plates contained a film which was removed and processed manually in a dark room. A CR system scans the plate in a special x-ray plate scanner to remove this step. CR then transforms the x-ray image to a digital image on a computer. This image is stored in a special format for medical diagnostic images. The process takes around 60 seconds to obtain an image.

The use of CR means that x-ray films no longer need to be developed in a time consuming and potentially messy process involving chemical baths and dark rooms.

The digital images produced can also be manipulated and enhanced to show up specific structures and areas of interest. This removes significant problems experienced with underexposure or overexposure of an x-ray film in the past. An incorrect exposure has historically led to a second x-ray being required. This outcome forced an additional x-ray exposure, placing staff and your pet at greater risk, as well as consuming considerable extra time.

Images are available at all key computer viewing stations around the hospital, meaning that x-ray films will now never be lost and precious time will not be spent searching through archives. X-rays can also be transferred in digital format to referring veterinary hospitals with e-mail capability.